This year I've decided to sketch many of The Great Holy Men and Women of the Church. Come along with me on this journey as we get to know our elder brothers and sisters in faith.

"And therefore we also having so great a cloud of witnesses over our head, laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us," Heb 12:1

Clement of Rome

November 24

Clement of Rome [Latin: Clemens Romanvs] [c. 30-99 A.D.] was the fourth Pope of Rome. Clement was of Greek birth, and a slave of the Roman Consul, Titus Flavius Clemens. After the death of his master, he was freed and became a follower of the Apostle Peter, who ordained him as a deacon. He was widely esteemed by his fellow Roman christians, and was elected as Pope in his later years. He wrote many early works of ecclesiology, and many of his encyclicals survive to this day. He eventually was exiled from Rome by the pagan courts, and was forced into a hard labor camp in Sevastopol (in Modern Ukraine), where he was ultimately martyred by drowning in the Black Sea.